


Small Repairs

by theskywasblue



Category: Firefly
Genre: Competition, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-09-22
Updated: 2010-09-22
Packaged: 2017-10-12 02:32:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 572
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/119821
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/theskywasblue/pseuds/theskywasblue
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jayne fixes the skiff - River helps (no, really)</p>
            </blockquote>





	Small Repairs

**Author's Note:**

  * For [macavitykitsune](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=macavitykitsune).



"You're doing it wrong."

"Little girl," Jayne does his best to resolutely _not_ look up from his work. They've played this game at least a dozen times today already and it's tiring. Just because the girl's a genius doesn't mean she knows more about fixing the gorram skiff than everyone else in the 'verse. "I ain't a damn fool. An' you ain't never fixed something like this before, so take a hike."

"You've got all the wires in the wrong places," she keeps going, perching on the side of the skiff like some kind of great bird in a blue sundress, watching him lay waste to the access panel. "Pretty rainbow worm's nest – but it's all _wrong_."

And, okay, maybe Kaylee should be fixing the skiff – she knows more about what makes things run than any girl ought to – but Jayne can do a not half-bad job either, he's not helpless. And he's definitely not going to let on that he's been thinking it's not quite right since the minute he pulled off that yellow wire by accident when he was trying to reach down to get at the loose bolt. He's sure he put it back in the right place, though.

Mostly sure.

"If you're gonna sit there yammering, maybe you could get down here and hold this gorram flashlight – make yourself useful for a change."

She jumps down from the edge of the skiff, half a dancer and half a doll-faced killing machine, and takes the flashlight, slipping in easy behind him to shine it into the panel over his shoulder. He doesn't like her much in behind him like that -- Jayne's boys still ache with the memory of just how much power is wound up tight in that pretty little body, and even though she's supposed to be all sweet and mostly sane now he doesn't trust her not to go spinning right back any second.

He hasn't even touched the instrument panel again when she says, "You should take out that bolt."

"Sweetheart, that bolt is part of what holds this whole mess together."

"No, it's just a pretend bolt – it's only there to make you feel better, so you're not afraid. It's okay – just take it off – then you can put this here," she points at one of the yellow wires and then to the empty space left by the faulty one that Jayne removed. "And it'll all work again. Good as new."

He's pretty sure it's not going to actually work – the girl might have been a real genius once, but she's a crazy genius now and book smarts don't really count for a thing out in the black anyhow; but he tries it anyway, thinking the whole thing will fall apart under his hands and Mal with throw a fit – and it better not come out of his pay or so help him...

But when he gets up in the driver's seat and turns the key, the skiff roars to life, without even its usual second of hesitation before the spark plugs fire.

He looks over at River, all kinds of shocked and more than a little bit sore that a girl who ain't barely legal and near-to-never gets her hands the tiniest bit dirty can put a skiff together almost faster than he can blink.

River looks up at him and smiles, smugger than a rooster in a house full of easy hens.

-End-


End file.
